Policy Statement on Academic Freedom

Publication Date: 8/1/2014

APPENDIX B. POLICY STATEMENTS

B.1: POLICY STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM

The 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure of the American Association of University Professors is a satisfactory expression of the College's position on academic freedom. The College's own statement on academic tenure and related policies, adapted from the A.A.U.P. guidelines, is contained in "The Amended 1969 Statement on Faculty Appointments, Reappointments, Promotions, and Tenure" printed in this Manual. The relevant portions of the 1940 A.A.U.P. Statement are:

Institutions of higher education are conducted for the common good and not to further the interest of either the individual teacher or the institution as a whole. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.

Academic freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research. Freedom in research is fundamental to the advancement of truth. Academic freedom in its teaching aspect is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the teacher in teaching and of the student in learning. It carries with it duties correlative with rights.

Tenure is a means to certain ends: specifically, (1) freedom of teaching and research and of extramural activities and (2) a sufficient degree of economic security to make the profession attractive to men and women of ability. Freedom and economic security, hence, tenure, are indispensable to the success of an institution in fulfilling its obligations to its students and to society.

Academic freedom:

The teacher is entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results, subject to the adequate performance of his/her other academic duties; but research for pecuniary return should be based upon an understanding with the authorities of the institution.

The teacher is entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing his/her subject, but should be careful not to introduce into his/her teaching controversial matter that has no relation to the subject. Limitations of academic freedom because of religious or other aims of the institution should be clearly stated in writing at the time of the appointment[1].

The college or university teacher is a citizen, a member of a learned profession, and an officer of an educational institution. When he/she speaks or writes as a citizen, he/she should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but his/her special position in the community imposes special obligations. As a person of learning and an educational officer, he/she should remember that the public may judge his/her profession and institution by his/her utterances. Hence he/she should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and should make every effort to indicate that he/she is not an institutional spokesperson.

The Academic Affairs Committee consists of six appointed trustees, the President of the College and the chair of the Board as ex officio members, the Dean of the Faculty, the chair of the EPC, and a representative of the student government association. The latter two members do not attend meetings at which the Committee considers tenure recommendations. Only the trustee members vote on such recommendations; the President abstains from voting so as not to sit in judgment of his/her own recommendations to the Committee.

[1] "Ordinances or By-Laws shall not make the religious tenets of any person a condition of admission to any privilege in the said College and no President or Professor or other officer shall be made ineligible for or by any religious tenet that he/she may profess, or be compelled, by any By-Law or otherwise, to subscribe to any religious test whatsoever." Article VII, The Charter of .